Franken introduces bill to protect LGBT students from bullying
By Andy Birkey 5/20/10 1:48 PM
http://minnesotaindependent.com/59167/franken-introduces-bill-to-protect-lgbt-students-from-bullying (http://minnesotaindependent.com/59167/franken-introduces-bill-to-protect-lgbt-students-from-bullying)
Sen. Al Franken introduced legislation on Thursday that would protect LGBT students from bullying in America's public schools. The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) is in response to a series of incidents where students have been bullied to death — either murdered at the hands of their attackers or having committed suicide as a result of bullying.
"It's time that we extend the protections of our nation's civil right laws to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students across the country," Franken said in a statement. "No student should be subjected to the ridicule and physical violence that LGBT students so often experience in school. It's time we demanded equal treatment for all of our children under the law."
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Franken bill would protect gay students
The legislation is aimed at stopping bullying and harassment in schools.
By KEVIN DIAZ, Star Tribune
Last update: May 20, 2010 - 9:36 PM
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/94547644.html (http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/94547644.html)
So on Thursday, Berlin, now a 19-year-old college student in San Francisco, welcomed legislation introduced by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., protecting gays and lesbians -- and those perceived to be gays and lesbians -- from school bullies.
Long awaited by gay activists, the Student Non-Discrimination Act also would add bisexual and transgender students to the groups federally protected against school violence and harassment.
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Sen. Al Franken Introduces LGBT Student Protection Bill
by Kilian Melloy
Friday May 21, 2010
http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=105993 (http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=105993)
Minnesota Democratic senator Al Franken has introduced a bill that would make anti-gay bullying in schools a federal offense--an important step for GLBT youth, given that the overwhelming majority of gay and lesbian middle and high schoolers are subjected to anti-gay taunts, harassment, and even physical abuse, sometimes by their own teachers.
Even when teachers, administrators, and other school employees are not actively involved in such harassment, all too often they do nothing to intervene when a student who is gay--or perceived as gay--is targeted for abuse by his peers, as happened to a gay freshman named Andy Berlin, according to a May 20 article in the Minneapolis-St. Paul newspaper the Star-Tribune.